Ready to release the Toxic Grind Machine Album.. what to do?

[Toxic Grind Machine]

Hey all!

So Trevor and i are about to release our TGM debut album very, very soon!
Im at the point where i have to record a few more guitar tracks but the mix is 100% ready and mastered, and everything is in place and ready to be released.

A question rises though.. as someone who mixes and records most of the time, i find myself wondering about how a band like ours should release this sumbitch.

Offcourse we are thinking about self distribution (hard-copies and digital release) but are there more options then this?
We could also just release it and let people donate whatever they want for it.. but as we have worked very hard over the past few years to achieve this point of the project, i feel it's needed to get compensated for more then just making a name out there and a few bucks from those who have been following us over the years and actually want to pay for the product.

So those who have been in this situation (i know a lot of you have been at this point with your band(s) and/or projects) what did you do and what would you advise us to do?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Hey all!

So Trevor and i are about to release our TGM debut album very, very soon!
Im at the point where i have to record a few more guitar tracks but the mix is 100% ready and mastered, and everything is in place and ready to be released.

This is not helping you but... how could you have a mix 100% ready and mastered if you haven't recorded everything yet?

 

[Toxic Grind Machine]

That is not helping me!

I have all the stems and recorded files in one huge mixfile for the entire album.. meaning if 1 song is done, that's basically the entire mix done (drums, bass, guitar, synths and vocal settings).
All that is left is to record a few guitar parts on the other songs with exact same settings from that one song that is done..

As your people would say: voila!

 

[rob w]

Kinda depends on your motivation for playing music i guess. If you feel you need to be financially rewarded for you efforts then i would charge. Digital download is generally the eeasiest to set up, but cds can be sold/handed out at gigs etc.
also, i would advise that you treat each song as a seperate entity when mixing. Of courseuse the same settings when tracking, but sometimes templates don't ensure that the tracks sound consistant. A slower track may need different reverb settings to help it sound "right".

 

[Toxic Grind Machine]

Kinda depends on your motivation for playing music i guess. If you feel you need to be financially rewarded for you efforts then i would charge. Digital download is generally the eeasiest to set up, but cds can be sold/handed out at gigs etc.
also, i would advise that you treat each song as a seperate entity when mixing. Of courseuse the same settings when tracking, but sometimes templates don't ensure that the tracks sound consistant. A slower track may need different reverb settings to help it sound "right".

Thanks friend.. and yes, i hear you about that way of mixing, to each it's own..But i do use a lot of automation for delays and reverbs, i also do external mixes per song for synths and vocals.

 

[CubanDude]

^ This is something i've been wondering lately.. What do you guys do to ensure a consistent sound throughout the whole album? especially same RME levels? Do you mix each song separately in a separate session and pay attention to have the same overall balance between the single elements (vocals, guitars, bass, drums etc.) and then master each track separately? Sorry to hijack your thread

 

[Toxic Grind Machine]

Nay worries, dude that is obviously cuban.

Hopefully without straying too far from my original question:

- I setup a template file for 1 album.. meaning i will use 1 template/cubase session for 1 album.
- I usually setup 1 song for a album that has a mid tempo and nothing extraordinary to attend to.
- I setup that song as my main mix, i master a wee bit (EQ most of the time) on the side in the final stage of setting up the mix of that 1 song.
- Import the rest of the album files, then i setup automation on the reverbs and delays for faster and/or slower songs to get the right feel to it.. same goes for compression, especially on drums.
- I then setup group tracks, parallel busses and attend to the final touches the album needs, all within one template.

For TGM, i have so much synths and samples, i take every song into a external template to record and mix the synths and samples, plus extra things within that template, but that's just for TGM.

Also, i want it to have a session feel to it, songs overlapping each other as if it were 1 big song containing 8-9 chapters in total.. for that, the above mentioned method is perfect in my opinion.

 

[CubanDude]

thanks for the information! and i'm not cuban, i should add a subtitle under my nickname bizarre story, let's not get into this

edit: done

 

[nwright]

You have lots of options for digital distro. Seeing how you guys are not a touring act (IIRC), I don't know if I'd personally go through the expense of a lot of physical CD's.

Since TGM seems to be well regarded in the internet world, keeping the release in the digital domain is a no brainer. In this day and age, I don't know if I'd charge a lot, though.

My band just released an EP for digital distro. We used CD baby for placement on a bunch of digital distro places (iTunes, Amazone, etc.) we also have it for sale on Bandcamp.

A word of caution though...the only release we have on bandcamp is our newest and it's already on a LOT LOT LOT of torrent sites. So either they are shitty streaming rips, or people know how to get to the audio in bandcamp. I've found on some sites our release has been downloaded hundreds of times. Spread over 10-15 sites, that's a lot of lost revenue...But, more people are hearing us than ever before, lol :/

for digital distro through CD baby, it was 40 or 50 bucks...But we also purchased our barcode and all that, as we are making physical CD's for sales at live performances.

CD baby gives the songs ISRC codes as well, if that means anything to you. Once I got those, I embedded them in the physical masters as well as the bandcamp songs. I like what CD baby offers.

 

[pifos_2]

hey bob,

if i was to release an album today i would put it on cdbaby or something, to make sure i wont have to take care of the delivering/posting/manufacturing myself.
it's great to sell independant cds in the US, maybe a bit less interesting in europe but still.
they also have a digital release deal which is great.

put up a nice website/facebook/bandcamp... make some videos, down like a countdown thing to get people exited and put some track online, maybe one a week

 

[rob w]

^ This is something i've been wondering lately.. What do you guys do to ensure a consistent sound throughout the whole album? especially same RME levels? Do you mix each song separately in a separate session and pay attention to have the same overall balance between the single elements (vocals, guitars, bass, drums etc.) and then master each track separately? Sorry to hijack your thread

Generally, if you track everything with the same settings it shouldn't be wildly different when it comes to mixing.

 

[smy1]

Hey Bob,

I see you have a little more than 200 likes on the TGM Facebook, so that means that outside of this forum and maybe your circle of acquaintances, TGM does not exist. I have about 12000 and that means I almost don't exist either!

This in turn means you can't expect compensation from fans of your music because you have no fans. Fans are people who have continually liked your output and are looking forward to more. You've had no releases so all you have is a few people interested in your music.

Your first steps should be:

1) set up a website called www.toxicgrindmachine.com - make it look super professional, quickloading and easy to navigate. Don't skimp with money/effort on this because this is what you'll be judged by (often before people even hear your music)
2) get on Reverbnation or some other site that gives you widgets and a mailing list
3) get on either Tunecore or CDBaby (if you also want to sell CDs) for download-distro
4) get on Bandcamp as your storefront
5) think of a story for your band, a clear identity, something people can talk about like "Oh, TGM are these two guys who met in a forum and then one married the other's sister and they moved to China to make kickass metal like Fear Factory!" - it doesn't even matter if any of this is actually true, but find an interesting story
6) find a musical comparison that you always use - I for example use "sounds like a mix of Daft Punk and Rammstein" for my music. Even if it's not entirely true or even 50% of the picture, you HAVE to give interested parties some general idea if that's what they want to check out or if they are actually looking for "Garth Brooks meets Britney Spears".
7) put everything on iTunes etc. for money. Music that costs nothing is worth nothing.
8) put everything on Bandcamp for the price of "fans can pay a minimum of 0.29$ or more" per song
9) try to get on as many metal-related webzines/blogs
10) put all your songs up on YouTube with albumcover and links to itunes/bandcamp/website. Do it, people might search for it after they read about you and if they don't find you, you lose potential fans.
11) start working on the next songs because if you don't have new music out 6 months after your debut, everyone will forget about you.

After you've done all this, the real work starts ...

Hope that helps.

 

[Parka Dez]

^^What he said...

...or

Do you aim to get the band playing live? If you do, contact industry friends, or contact relevant A&R guys at labels with some kind of story and a 3 track sampler. Or management or whoever.

If you aren't planning on playing live, don't bother contacting the labels and do what Mr.Smy1 is suggesting.

 

[if6was9]

Also worth noting- the bandcamp player doesn't work for everyone. Doesn't work on my machine and I don't know how many bands I've come across now that only have their stuff on bandcamp to listen to.

What smy1 said is very true. Great advice

 

[006]

Not trying to be a dick or anything, and I wish the best for your project Bob, but I would suggest mentally preparing yourself for when you see your album up on a few handfuls of blogspots for illegal download. It's going to suck, it's going to happen, unfortunately.

 

[Toxic Grind Machine]

Thanks for the input so far lads!

First things first, obviously we want recognition for the work we have done so far, and offcourse getting your name out there is important to us, or at least it is to me..
But screw fame and fortune, just want to establish a name within this genre and take it from there.

Money? not even bothered if we don't break even.. people can download all they want, i don't care that much to be honest.. just getting it out there for those who want to listen to it is the main goal.
If people want to buy the songs.. awesome! If not, meh. i'll live.

So basically the distribution and publishing are the main questionmarks for me for now.
Extra thanks to smy1, nice writeup sir and i'll dig deeper into it later today..cheers!

 

[if6was9]

Not trying to be a dick or anything, and I wish the best for your project Bob, but I would suggest mentally preparing yourself for when you see your album up on a few handfuls of blogspots for illegal download. It's going to suck, it's going to happen, unfortunately.

Yeah, it's pretty mad how organised these places are. Our 4 track E.P was up really quickly with artwork and they also included "bonus" tracks of our previous recordings.

 

[kev]

I'll be stoked to hear this once its done! It must be 5 years ago since I first creamed my pants to realm of reality on repeat Bob! Great post from Smy I reckon - hes done it all before with this. Get an awesome graphics artist to take your theme to a new place with a photoshop mock up, and then it can be unleashed into & translated nicely into a real site. Get toxicgrindmachine.com registered up pronto

 

[nwright]

Not trying to be a dick or anything, and I wish the best for your project Bob, but I would suggest mentally preparing yourself for when you see your album up on a few handfuls of blogspots for illegal download. It's going to suck, it's going to happen, unfortunately.

My band just released a new digital EP on Bandcamp and within a week it was everywhere.

Kinda disappointing when you o a google search for your band's release and the first 3-4 pages of results are mostly places to DL it illegally.

But at least they get to hear he music!

 

[Virgil.]

I really like when bands include a cd or dvd full of stems for those that want to remix. Ola, for instance, and his new Feared album... to me, something like this is worth forking over the cash because a) I like the songs, b) I know the stem quality is good, and c) it's always nice to have some kickass songs for mixing practice to breakup the monotony. lol. Being a TGM fan for a couple of years now, I would honestly pay a lot more just to get that added bonus of getting to mess around with remixing your tunes to figure out how you get such a huge sound.